•Success in sports other than football: Six teams, including men's and women's basketball, made the postseason last year.

•Academic improvement: Football's Academic Progress Rate had been among the country's five worst last year because of shortcomings dating to his predecessors. It since has improved from 889 to 914. Eleven of SDSU's 18sports programs posted their highest APR rates this year, including baseball and football.

•New football staff: Team has shown signs of competitiveness this year under new coach Brady Hoke and coordinators Rocky Long and Al Borges.

•Litigiousness: A former practicing attorney, he often fought on SDSU's behalf with a laywerly argumentativeness. Results included such things as better field markings for SDSU football games. The team previously played on a field with a Chargers logo visible at midfield.

CONS:

•Hired Chuck Long as football coach despite Long's reputation in the industry as not particularly intense. Schemmel kept insisting the team was improving almost to the day he fired him in November 2008. Long's record was 9-27 in 2008, including 2-10 last year. Attendance has yet to recover.

•Fired swim coach Deena Deardurff Schmidt in 2007 just three months after the school opened a new $12 million pool complex for which she had long fought. At the time, she also faced several serious illnesses, including breast cancer and melanoma. She sued and was given a $1.45 million settlement.

•Investigations: After football player Lance Louis allegedly attacked teammate Nick Sandford last year, the incident wasn't reported to police for two weeks. University policy says to report violence immediately. Louis now faces a misdemeanor charge. Schemmel resigned after investigation into his expenses for a personal trip.

•Litigiousness: Schemmel's argumentativeness and word parsing annoyed some. Sometimes it backfired. SDSU went through a year of agonizing negotiations with the city of San Diego for a new lease to play at Qualcomm Stadium. A city official called the talks “difficult.” Schemmel also defended a clause in Chuck Long's contract that, in effect, bound him to the university making $715,000 per year through 2010 despite being fired as coach last year. (A settlement was announced yesterday).

— Brent Schrotenboer

University of San Diego Athletic Director Ky Snyder declined to speculate yesterday on his possible candidacy for the same job now open at San Diego State.

Don Oberhelman, SDSU's current interim athletic director, said he isn't sure yet if he'll throw his hat in the ring for the permanent job.

Both already have been mentioned by fans and alumni as potential candidates to replace Jeff Schemmel, whose resignation was announced yesterday.

“Some people I can't imagine that they won't be nominated as part of the search,” Weber said. “We'll proceed and see if they're interested.”

Weber said he hopes to hire a new athletic director by March 1. He said they will not use a search firm to aid the process, unlike 2005, when SDSU paid consultant Chuck Neinas $35,618 to aid the search that hired Schemmel. Instead, to save money, Weber said SDSU only will use a local committee of alumni, university and community members to make the hire.

A likely nomination is expected to be Snyder, a former SDSU football player who has been USD's executive athletic director since December 2003. He's a Poway resident, has extensive ties in the region and was president of the host committee for the Super Bowl at Qualcomm Stadium in 2003.

While declining to speculate about the vacancy, Snyder had kind words about Schemmel.

“He was good to work with,” Snyder said. “I'm disappointed this has worked out this way for him, and I just wish him and Lori (Schemmel's wife) the best.”

Likewise, Oberhelman said of Schemmel: “You never want to see a friend hurt, and I know he's hurting right now. I know he's upset. But he has a lot of great friends on this campus.”

As for his candidacy, Oberhelman said, “I don't know yet.”

“Right now, I've got to be able to spend some time with President Weber and (Vice President) Sally Roush. My job description just tripled. I'm going to focus on that first.”

Oberhelman was Schemmel's top deputy and came to SDSU in early 2007 from Southern Mississippi. His candidacy rests in part on how much SDSU wants to make a break from or continue Schemmel's initiatives.

SDSU had a similar “continuity candidate” in 2005, when Steve Becvar, SDSU's then-interim athletic director, was one of two finalists for the job along with Schemmel. Becvar now works as a deputy to Snyder at USD and could be a candidate at SDSU, too. Weber is said to have been disappointed when Becvar left SDSU in early 2008.

Whoever the candidates, Weber said SDSU will learn from the Schemmel situation. Schemmel's resignation marks the second time since 2003 that an SDSU athletic director has resigned after an investigation. Before Schemmel, Rick Bay resigned in 2003 after a California State University audit found mismanagement in his department.

Weber said SDSU is looking for a “person who can care about our students and improve their academic and competitive success. That doesn't change.

“We are always looking at these issues very carefully because these are public, visible positions, and constantly one tries to be careful and be sure we trust those positions with people who will not embarrass us,” Weber said.

Previously, in searches for new football coaches and the athletic director, SDSU enlisted search firms to help vet candidates and interview them. SDSU also paid Neinas $30,000 to help hire football coach Chuck Long in 2005. Long was fired last year with an overall record of 9-27.

“It's hard to suggest that Chuck Neinas could have seen this coming any more than I saw it coming,” Weber said.